Undrat sat with the other Tukna'rn, dressed in adaptive camouflage, a hat called a beret on his head, heavy boots on his feet, and fingerless gloves on his hands. He, and the other Tukna'rn, waited patiently as the three Terran non-commissioned officers spoke quietly to an officer that Undrat recognized.

The two section leaders, Senior Sergeants, and the Platoon Sergeant, a Sergeant First Class, were talking to the Platoon Leader, a Second Lieutenant. Undrat recognized them easily, and knew their voices as well as their BATACNET ID's.

After all, he had committed the information to memory so he wouldn't forget it.

The Tukna'rn waited patiently. They knew to trust their NCO's and officers as they would trust an Overseer.

The faint bellow of You Belong to Us! sounded out and the Terran counter-roar of Come Get Some! sounded back.

Finally the lights dimmed slightly as the Lieutenant, a Terran female that Undrat knew was 2LT Dani Oversteer Ungawa, moved in front of everyone.

"Right now, men, we're in a holding pattern. The earliest the enemy will make planetfall is twenty hours, so as of now we do not have any landing zones for the enemy," she said, spreading her feet shoulder width apart and putting her hands behind her back at her belt line, her elbows out to the side at a ninety degree angle. A position known as Parade Rest, a position Undrat was familiar with, as it was the most common speaking position.

"Space Force is engaged with heavy opposition. The enemy has jumped into the system with two large ships and multiple ancillary vessels. As of two hours ago another, damaged, larger ship and its ancillary vessels arrived in system," the Lieutenant said. "Command has determined that the Marines will take on the landing zones, we will be deploying to protect civilian settlements."

Undrat did not nod but felt pleasure at the fact that he had correctly determined, based on doctrine and history, what he would be doing.

"We will be in full deployment mode. Engineers and logistics units will be creating logistics bases and building the firebases that we will be operating out of," the LT continued. "While your unit is unblooded at the lower rank level, all of your officers and non-commissioned officers have decades of combat experience under their belt, from the Clownhead Nebula war to the Niven-Ring-Two-Five Defense."

All of the Tukna'rn nodded at once.

"Our area of operations will involve protecting a city of five point six million people. As it stands, the Lerektemmin Fusion Power Plant Complex will be shut down and disengaged from the power grid, so that will not be a priority defensive point," the LT said. She moved to the side and a hologram of the city appeared, rotated so that they were looking at it from above.

The city had a river on one side the branched in the middle. She highlighted the junction of the 'Y' and zoomed in on it. There were three massive roadways that crossed the river right there, two mag-lev lines. There was an industrial park on the narrow opening of the 'Y' that was crosshatched.

"Right now One-Twenty-Third Combat Engineers are running ant-hives to bring up a forward operations base here," the LT said, pointing at the base of the 'V' part of the 'Y', "Which will be where we will initially deploy. We will have air defense from here, here, here, and here," she said, pointing at the spots around the FOB.

The lecture continued, with the LT repeating it twice and repeating certain sections. She paused between each section she explained, allowing Undrat and the others to commit it to memory. She covered communications frequencies, which Military Intelligence, Air Defense, Signal, and Close Air Support units would be tasked to provide support.

Undrat committed it all to memory, loading the data that was marked for it into his datalink.

Finally he sat and listened as the Senior Sergeant in charge of the section talked to his section that they would be providing heavy gunnery support in a static position until the Forward Operations Base was completed. His Squad Leader, a Sergeant Ulnva, ordered everyone to stand up, arrange by ranks, and follow.

Undrat felt a slim feeling of satisfaction as they approached the armory.

At the armory he first unlocked his frame with his biometrics, seeing that the modular system was going to be loaded with heavy armor and area defense weapons. Next he went through and was informed of his primary weapon.

The M-318A2E5 20mm General Purpose Heavy Machinegun, with a smart-rig, loaded with two primary Class-II nanoforges and a single Class-III emergency nanoforge. He was informed that he was authorized full ammunition loadout, including variable fusing for the munitions.

That made Undrat sigh with pleasure.

He liked the Madame-Three-Eighteen. She was a venerable warrior, with a pedigree that Undrat appreciated.

From there Undrat followed Sergeant Ulnva back to the primary armory, where he stood in front of the Combat Frame Deployment Point. A Terran mechanic nodded to him.

"Private Undrat," he said. He pressed his palm against the reader and then punched in a code.

The stripped down frame exited an alcove in the wall. As Undrat watched additional modular pieces were added to the frame, followed by heavy armor plating, the power plants, and his onboard weaponry.

Undrat nodded with appreciation at each part. Shoulder fired 40mm variable fusing variable payload short range missiles with a maximum effective range of five thousand meters, maximum ceiling of two thousand meters. Graviton stabilizer and anchoring system. Battlescreen and sterifield. Leg mounted 10mm micro-launchers, a drone launcher, a nanoforge for the armor, strength enhancement, full combat sensor suite.

When it was ready, he could feel a slight flutter of anticipation.

"MOUNT THE FRAME!" Lieutenant Ungawa snapped.

Undrat stepped into the armor, left foot first, right foot, pushing his arms against the frame. It beeped twice and wrapped around him. For a moment he was firmly embraced in the dark.

The control plug slotted into the base of his skull and the armor went live.

It went through the full diagnostic. Every piece passed and Undrat felt it come up 'live' to his senses. It felt like his skin had grown thicker, that his reflexes were faster, that his breathing and heartbeat was more engaged.

"Wake Duknark up," Undrat said.

The suit beeped and a second later an icon appeared in his vision.

"Hello, Undrat," the VI said. "It isn't training, is it?"

"No, Duknark," Undrat said.

"Some serious firepower here, boss. Wait a moment. All right, they're uploading additional missile templates for surface to air missiles as well as armor busters. We'll be working with a trio of combat drones," Duknark said, his voice calm and at ease.

Undrat nodded. That would be the three standard drones. An 80mm Hellbore, a pair of linked 20mm quad-barrel rapid fire miniguns, and a dual six-pack rocket/missile launcher. Undrat stood solid while Duknark checked the limited VI of the drones and linked them into the armor's systems.

Once the CRC's and the other checks passed, Undrat waited until Duknark informed him that the drones had been loaded onto the striker to move it to the deployment cite.

"OK, they're loading up a temporal interdiction system onto your armor," Duknark said.

"How will that affect my power consumption?" Undrat asked.

"It has internal power, dedicated microcrystal zero-point reactor," Duknark said.

"Very well," Undrat said. He didn't bother wondering why he was being loaded up with something to keep him locked in time, just took satisfaction that he was being protected in such a matter.

The why was for the officers and senior NCO's, not a private like him.

Finally the word came.

Undrat followed the Senior NCO out to the striker. He liked strikers, liked the feeling of flying in them. He climbed on, just like he was supposed to, and locked himself into the door gunner's position, pulling the belt for his Madame Three-Eighteen from the striker's ammo-bin to the gun. He knew that Ilkruk behind him was doing the same thing as the rest of the 13 man squad took their places. He glanced over at Specialist Grade-Four Tevann, who was wearing flat gray armor with medical markers on each side of the chest.

The striker lifted off and Undrat checked his fire linkages again, making sure the gun was properly synched to his armor and his systems.

The path led them toward the city, banking out to avoid the suburbs. Undrat could see cars leaving houses, heading toward the shelters.

Undrat was glad that he would not be in a shelter this time, that he would be on the surface where he could help those who needed help.

He hoped that the Overseer was safe and taking care of others.

The striker leveled out over a superhighway, twelve lanes of traffic, and flew only ten meters above the tops of the vehicles. Cars were honking at each other, many of them having collided trying to change lanes.

"They're not going to make it to the shelters," Lieutenant Ungawa said.

"They always do this," Sergeant Ulnva said softly. "They always panic, that's why the shelters are never fully loaded when they first lock down."

"If they'd just be orderly, they wouldn't get slaughtered in the opening engagements," Lieutenant Ungawa said softly.

"Then they wouldn't be civilians, ma'am," Sergeant Ulnva said. "It's why we beat the civilian out of these guys. The only thing worse than civvies are the politicians and the wealthy and the elite."

There was silence on the general channel. The striker swerved to the far side of the river, dropping down and running only a few meters above the street until the striker suddenly dropped down, the nose lifting. Undrat put the weapon back on safety and waited till the striker bobbled and hovered just of the ground, the grav-engines whining.

"DISMOUNT!" Sergeant Ulnva said.

As the others went by his left side, Undrat snapped the ammo belt free and let the auto-tension system pull the belt into the ammo bin, then dismount the weapon. Once everyone else was off the striker from his side, Undrat hefted his gun and jumped out, dropping two meters and flexing his knees when he hit. Undrat could remember that the first couple of months of training his knees and back had ached when he had dismounted.

Now his muscles were hardened and he knew how to use his armor properly and there was not even a twinge of discomfort.

The HUD on his visor flashed, letting Undrat know where his fighting position was.

The fighting position was dual purposed. Three layers of heavy battlescreens, a pair of sterifields, heavy armor. It was designed to be difficult to separate from the terrain but provide the most protection for Undrat.

He dropped into the fighting position, pulling the weapon off the smart-rig and locking it into the tripod mount, running the ammo from the tripod's system to the gun.

"Don't forget to activate the radar scattering field," Duknark added.

"Thank you," Undrat said. He made sure to match the two jagged lines to one another, carefully tuning them in. He knew he would have to realign the lines and retune the frequencies once the enemy arrived, to match the enemy's sensor frequencies.

Undrat waited as infantrymen from his squad climbed in. All Tukna'rn like himself, but none of them Heavy Weapon's Specialists like he was. They were standard riflemen, the backbone of the Terran Confederate Army's infantry.

Twice Sergeant Ulnva walked by, checking to make sure everyone in their fighting positions, making sure everyone ate, that they took rest shifts, that their equipment was ready and in the proper places.

Sergeant Ulnva had been in the Confederate Army for nearly a hundred and fifty years, and the stoic silence of the Tukna'rn was taking some getting used to. Usually when infantryman stopped talking and sat still so often was sign of an infantryman getting close to the red line.

But it was just the way the Tukna'rn were.

"Enemy profile upload incoming, men," Lieutenant Ungawa said over the command channel.

Undrat signaled that he'd gotten the upload, then took the time to examine it.

Command believed that there would be biological weapons from the size of a small pet all the way to the size of a large building involved, with mechanical ones based on the biological design of the same sizes. Additionally, there was a risk of "Atrekna Leadership", which Undrat took the time to examine closely, just as he did the vehicles.

The fighting position had resting sections, and twice Undrat moved back to eat, get out of his armor so that the green mantid engineers could go over it while he bathed and slept, then put the armor back on and take his place at the heavy gun.

He knew that behind him the FOB was being built up further further. More gun emplacements, more anti-air defense, more hellbore positions, another striker field, a medivac position, and more.

We are the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems's Army, we are the unbreakable bulwark. Every moment that passes our strength grows, rather than diminish. Should I fall in defense of a world, a hundred more shall take up guns to take my place, Undrat thought to himself as the sun rose on the third day.

At the top of his HUD was flashing IMMINENT ENEMY PLANETARY LANDINGS in amber.

Undrat waited patiently.

They would get here eventually.

And when they did...

...he would kill them.

----------------

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

We've got a bunch of

CASE OMAHA

weird ships coming

CASE OMAHA

in from inside the

CASE OMAHA

resonance zone.

Uh, what is that?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

It's a gestalt warning, letting all of us know that you're being invaded by the enemy in overwhelming force.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CONFEDMIL

ENEMY IN FORCE IN HESSTLA SYSTEM

CONFEDERATE MILITARY FORCES DEPLOYED AND ENGAGED

---NOTHING FOLLOWS--

HUMAN GESTALT

WE'RE COMING TO HELP YOU!

No, they can defend themselves.

Oh, shut up! This is a war of extermination!

We don't know that!

Ask the Talmonus Cluster!

Oh, and you've been there! How do we know it's not just more Confed propaganda like the Mar-gite War?

THAT HAPPENED! SOME OF US WERE THERE!

Crisis actors!

CHROME SAINT PETER! SHUT UP!

KID, WE'RE COMING TO HELP YOU!

No! We have to take a vote!

SHUT UP!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

We have already come to your assistance. We will assist you through this difficult time.

We are with you.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

It's going to be scary. You're really new, but we'll be here with you. You aren't alone this time.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

We got lucky.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

How?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

One of our people suffered an attack by one of the Atrekna ruling class.

She suffered a seizure that was brought to our attention.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

And you mobilized based off of that?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

Last time, many of my people suffered bad dreams the weeks before the invasion.

This time, we were warned by a child that they were coming. We couldn't take the chance.

We are a nervous people, guys. The last time they were here, they sucked out the brains of a full 22% of our population.

We don't want it to be half.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HUMAN GESTALT

That's why we're going to help you.

No! There hasn't been a vote.

Tell it to the Senate, loser.

You know we can't!

And who's fault is that? Ours? We're not the reason that the Senate isn't around any more.

You can't throw that in our face. Stop assaulting us.

You are the ones who got rid of the Senate. And it's not assault. You don't get a vote now.

OUR VOTE STILL COUNTS!

Nobody's vote counts. You made sure of it.

Stop throwing it in our face. That violates our right to be forgotten.

You can't use that on past voting. That's to be personally forgotten.

It's our right to vote on things!

We should vote on reactivating the Citizen's Voting Act.

NO! WE HAVE JUST AS MUCH RIGHT TO VOTE AS CITIZENS!

NOBODY CAN VOTE!

You have no right to commit us to a course of action.

YoU hAvE nO rIgHt

STOP MOCKING US!

Make us.

STOP THREATENING VIOLENCE ON US!

StOp ThReAtE

STOP IT!

StOp It!

>CYB-ADMIN sets HUMAN_GESTALT -v

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Can you clean that up?

Maybe put them in opposite corners?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

No. Our father has a dual mind problem.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

They're making planetary landing.

The elven queen's going to be mad at how bad this is going to mess everything up that she's fixed.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Oh, little sister/brother/cousin, you have no idea just how angry the queen will be.

And how she'll help you.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

>CYB-ADMIN sets HUMAN_GESTALT +v

STOP IT!

StOp It!

STOP IT!

StOp It!

STOP MOCKING ME!

StOp MoCkInG mE!

>CYB-ADMIN set HUMAN_GESTALT -v

MANTID FREE WORLDS

I think this is going to go on for a while.